Posted
by
timothy
on Saturday April 06, 2013 @09:50AM
from the chromebox-works-with-netflix-at-least dept.

earthwormgaz writes "I've set up a Linux XBMC + MythTV with FreeView machine for the lounge at home. It works pretty well for Linux, although things crash here and there. The Mrs wants LoveFilm or Netflix, but it seems they're Silverlight and not Linux friendly. Is there anyone doing streaming film and TV with Flash or something else that works on Linux? Failing that, is there anyway to download a film for £4-6 say, as just an AVI file or something, legally?"

In theory, your pronouncement would seem correct. However, I've just tried to set up Amazon Instant Video and it does not work in Firefox 20 on Lucid Lynx 10.04. It throws up a progress bar which ends with an error message that my version of Adobe Flash is not up to date (not true!). I'm glad I tried with a "free" video (I was charged $0.00). Try before you buy.

I had unblocked all scripting, btw. When I tried the help button, it referred me to a page that explained why Chrome (-ium?) won't work on Linux and to try Firefox! Head asplodes...

Like I said. That sounds like a problem that has squat to do with Linux. I too have tried all of this stuff and under various conditions. That includes running Windows and MacOS on comparable hardware and getting similar results.

This has been known since Feb 2011, which Amazon started encoding new content for TV shows using the newer version of Flash Access.

The Flash Access Component requires that the local machine support Libhal and hald, even though they are deprecated by over 7 years now by the OpenDesktop project.

It uses the information gathered from this interface to create a machine unique identifier, which it then uses as a content crypto key on the stream, and then you can play Amazon, Youtube, and Google Play content just fine.

Otherwise it bitches that your Flash is "out of date", when what it really means is that it can't install the Flash Access component because the libraries and supporting components used in the installation success test aren't there.

Most streaming applications won't support Linux because it doesn't require signed system components, and without that, the can't protect their content from piracy, commercial skipping, and so on when they stream to Linux systems; it's too easy to interpose libraries, system calls, and so on and take unencrypted digital content and rip it to some mp4 or other container file format.

This is also why the components from Provo, Utak for abc.com, nbc.com, and cbs.com have never been ported to Linux, and probably never will be.

Amazingly enough, Windows seems to be the prime hackery for video of all sorts, despite have these signed system components. Probably something to do with security....

My understanding is that if you want to rip digital content as digital without encryption, then you buy a Unigraf UFG-04 LVDS, LVDS Frame Grabber or a Gopel Electronic 4120 - Frame Grabber, or Teledyne Dalsa X64-LVDS. Then you take the connector which would normally go to a physical flat panel, and plug it into the card instead. Then you just grab each frame as it's "displayed" by the virtual LVDS device. After that, you have a perfect digital copy at the resolution of the emulated flat panel. Since you

And here is the message I got when I tried to access it in the latest Chrome on Kubuntu:

If you're using the Chrome browser with Linux, you must disable PPAPI to continue using Amazon Instant Video. You can also use a different Web browser, like Firefox. hundreds of other compatible devices.

bullshit, i'd given up getting flash working on my linux boxes until google fixed it up and built it into chrome. flash is a piece of shit, but it's worse on linux.

I've had flash working well on my Linux box since Adobe started releasing 64-bit betas. But, I have an nvidia card, which is the only thing you can be fairly sure that flash video acceleration will work with.

Amazon's streaming service is flaky with linux. The issue is DRM which for some reson is not supported in the linux version of the flash player.

Amazon video works fine under Ubuntu. Use Firefox, not Chrome.From the FAQ

Why can't I watch videos on my Chrome browser in Linux?The Flash Player Plugin in Chrome removed support for Digital Rights Management (DRM) in Linux as part of the upgrade from 11.3 to 11.4. This upgrade was bundled with the latest Chrome 22 update for Linux. If you applied the Chrome update, you are no longer able to watch DRM-protected content, such as movies and TV episodes. Trailers are unaffected as they do not use DRM. To get around this issue, you can use a different browser, such as Firefox. For information on Chrome and the Flash Player plug-in, see: https://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=108086 [google.com].

As per finding a legal DRM-free film, your chances are zero for 99% of everything you'd like to watch, and just highly unlikely for the remaining 1%. Any sites that would advertise such are most likely priating the movies and then selling for profit.

Wine or a virtual machine? Both options listed on the linked page are lame- I know I've tried them. Buggy or laggy, take your pick, and they generally don't take full advantage of hardware.

To the OP, there's youtube, hulu plus, or each network's website might have full shows as well. Netflix works on an Xbox quite well so buy one of those- there's also other streaming video apps available on Xbox live, but some are subscription based last time I checked.

If the content industry does not want to market their (usually crappy, but sometimes there are exceptions) content to me and people like me (Linux and BSD users), then so be it. But then they would be liars if they claimed that they were losing any money by me and people like me (Linux and BSD users) viewing, listening to, or reading their content. If they made the decision to not seek business revenues from me and people like me (Linux and BSD users), then they need to sleep in that bed.

Or to use the content MAFIAA math, there is 493700% of the content that you should be buying but are not, therefore you are a massive pirate and owe them the net value of Peru plus the total mineral wealth theoretically available in the Pacific Ocean. Experts will testify to this at the trial if payment is not recieved within 4 hours of this notice being put in the (snail) mail. Love, Content Lawyers Inc.

Which is because the MPAA and our friends at MPEG-LA were like: "Hello there. We create non-workaeble movie copies. That is, unless you use MPEG4. Of course the MPEG 4 license from MPEG-LA restricts vendors to play anything not obscurely crappy copyprotected. But hey... We have the Copyright, which is a law we lobbied to be passed, to make sure nobody may ever make useful copies. Of course nobody cared because movies cost money and we need to get paid. It just that we decided to earn money, our way. So now

I'm going to spread much Roku love. Amazon instant video, Netflix, Hulu, just about every church sermon in the country, The Blaze, all your premium cable channels, etc. And its a cute little hockey puck.

More Roku love... You can do local media if you have the right model. Roku 3 has a USB port for local media. You can also stream your entire ripped DVD collection direct to your Roku with Plex (which has a Linux server in addition to Windows and Mac), which will give you a much nicer UI than DLNA.

> The Roku only does streaming media,...which makes it the perfect compliment for an HTPC. The problem with PC based streamers is that Flash and Silverlight sucks. Even if your favorite service or plug-in is supported, you will still need to use brute force software decoding.

That will require a beefier box than an HTPC that can decode BluRays with the GPU.

Mediahint seems to be a free proxy with a FF extension. Running a proxy costs money. I wonder how this mysterious extension earns the developer(s) the money needed to pay for the proxy. The extension doesn't have an on/off switch, and the web site is completely silent about how it works or what it does. Am I too paranoid?

Okay, the same extension is in the Chrome store too, but from what I gather, in terms of being safe from malware, the chrome store offers no really-certain safety. It seems like a hack on the reporting mechanisms that otherwise shutdown service. Or, m

I went with a Mac. The Mac Mini is perfect for this sort of setup, and runs all the software I need it to (XBMC, Plex, etc) and plays all the formats I want (I use VLC), AND streams everything I want (Hulu, Netflix). Never crashes, has a built in IR reciever that I use with a Harmony remote, and uses very little electricity.

You are aware that you can build a decent multimedia system for about 400$US, right? I went over kill on mine because I want to watch my BDs and games in 3D. However, that one can run Skyrim and the like in full graphics and was only 1200$US.

I love redbox. I stop by every week or so and pick up two or three bluray movies in the middle of the week. I take them home, rip them and take them back then watch the movies on my WD HD TVlive box (which runs linux btw) in glorious 1080p on my big TV whenever I feel like it. It's so easy and effortless that I have just about stopped downloading stuff from The Pirate Bay.

True. I often find hardware for free or nearly free though that is capable of doing what he needs. It's not perfect condition cosmetically often but I've gotten perfectly good core2duo windows boxes that are so choked with malware that people throw them out and buy another one since Best Buy charges a ton to clean them up and most people are helpless to do it themselves. It's amazing what lands on the curb, I know I made about 2 grand one year cleaning up those things by reinstalling windows and selling

Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach.

If RMS and Linus had followed that advice, GNU, Linux, and probably Slashdot would never have existed. Why should one have to buy Windows and allow customer-hostile DRM software on ones computer to be able to watch a movie easily and legally? It's your computer, and the whole point of owning it is that you can make it do what you want. Trying to do just that seems perfectly reasonable to me, and I can't see how any system that doesn't allow you to do that could be the "right platform" for anything.

Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach.

That's why 1% use Linux and 99% use something else, but here on Slashdot I'd say it's almost implicit that the question is "I want to fit a square peg into a round hole, what's the best tool for the job?" and then we discuss the merits of various power tools and that getting a round peg is not a valid option. You should have been here long enough to notice...

Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach."

Sure. But saying "Swap to Windows" isn't exactly any more helpful, is it? I'm not going to shell out for a Windows license and I'm not going to install it illegaly. If I can't play netflix on the operating system of my choice, they're not having my business, simple as that. Besides, at the price I would pay for a netflix movie, I'll get the DVD instead; sometimes at a car boot sale, sometimes at

I agree. I set up a HTPC on an old mac mini running Plex [plexapp.com], for just that reason, Plex seemed to be the best HTPC app out there and was free, so I picked a platform that would allow me to run it.

I could have run it in a VM, on linux, but then I'm wasting hardware resources on a system that I want to be lower power and quiet. I personally like the fact that my wife can hit the power button, and 15seconds later be watching a movie.

Dump the religion out the window and use the tool that works for you, if you want

We (are supposed to) have standards for this kind of thing. There's no technological reason that this shouldn't work, therefore no reason it shouldn't work. Anything else is bureaucratic, dick wagging horseshit.

Don't limit that statement by applying the extra constraints. Starting from the ideal requirements is the right approach. The economics might change things, but let them change it after you decide what the best solution is. Starting from the position of "this would be great", then you can say "oh, but I have to save some money, so let's see what I can trim from the budget" or "I want Linux in here, so if I swap this for that, I still end up with everything I want." You stay focused on the end goal, and

The main problem here is that Flash and Silverlight suck. Even if you are running Windows, that simple fact is going to cause you a problem. It will increase your system requirements and may make the whole system less suitable for deployment in your living room.

Using the GPU to decode something is a LOT more efficient than the brute force CPU approach. You may not like the result of running your streaming service on a PC.

I never said anything about Flash or Silverlight. The requirement for an HTPC isn't "must run Flash" or "must run Silverlight", because those are just one type of means to an end, and they drive you towards a specific implementation of the solution. If you start out by thinking "Silverlight", the only obvious solution is "Big Windows machine", so you'll miss other potential solutions like adding a Roku box under remote control.

The real requirements are high level user stories like "My spouse wants to watc

For every job there are several tools that might work. For most, there are some tools that aren't the best choice. For example, while some screwdrivers could be used to hammer nails - they aren't the best for it and certainly will be frustrating to use. Linux has several places where it shines. It also has some where it is too frustrating to futz with. Video, due to the current copyright / drm mess, is one of the later. Don't cut off your choices just to be a zealot. Get an appropriate tool. That might be a

a roku hockey puck and plex media server running on my debian server and also my debian desktop. if i can't find what i want on netflix or any of the other channels on the roku i grab a torrent. i was using a soft-modded 1st gen xbox and xbmc but got the roku for Christmas. there are compromises using either set-up.

But hey - if you can get past all that, it will stream Netflix AND Hulu and stream iTunes music from your laptops and iPhones, not that you use iTunes or any other Apple stuff. But you get the streaming services you want on something that doesn't "crash here and there", and doesn't look like an eyesore homebrew project from spare parts. And it takes all of 5 minutes to set up.

I just got a Roku 3 and the user interface issues of the previous versions are fixed. Response is snappy and you can stream video from Plex media server (native Linux app) and other streaming servers (Playon, from Windows, for example). The Roku box will handle Netflix for you (and Hulu+) and will be easy enough for your wife to use without any training, and you'll have access to all your HDD based content as well.

Like Sony says, "it only does everything". Plays games, streams Netflix and Hulu+, plays content from DLNA servers, plays blu-ray discs, including 3D. PS3's are probably on sale since the PS4's are coming out...

For me personally, I need decent Flash. My (European) country's national broadcaster has a digital Flash-based channel. I recently found out that Adobe dropped Flash hardware acceleration somewhere last year. You can't force it on through some obscure configuration file, either.

That makes for a big disadvantage for most Linux-friendly stuff, I need something Microsofty or Apple-ish.

For quite some time I just resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to boot into windows or use some other poor method to get my netflix on... then Erich Hoover arrived with a heroic flast to his eye, chin thrust forward and proclaimed, "Do not go gentle into that sudo shutdown -r now! Rage, rage against the needlessness of these cursed reboots!

With Debian, android and Windows 7 machines, the cable cut and Tier II Internet (2 up, 20 down Mbps) in the house I simply use streaming devices for my TV's: Samsung wifi blu ray player for the big TV and a nice little WD Play TV device for my bedroom TV. Simple, inexpensive and fewer hassles.

Google Play plays through Youtube. So if you can use Youtube, you should be able to use Play. Full disclosure: the one time I used Google Play to rent a movie, I ended up watching it on a Windows computer. Not because I was having issues with Linux--the Windows computer was just better situated for watching.

Both work on Linux, although Amazon requires the Flash plugin (new Chrome-only Pepper API one will not work) with the HAL (there's a HAL package on Ubuntu: http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/flash-player-11-problems-playing.html [adobe.com])
The Adobe DRM for Amazon may come into a future Pepper API plugin but it is not currently implemented, which is why you need the old plugin Flash plugin + HAL.
Hulu works with both, as far as I can tell. It's been a while since I've watched stuff on there, though.

Amazon is flaky on Linux. It's not unusual to have to reload the page because it chokes (sometimes in the middle of playback) or to have the browser asplode.

They're also daft on Android. They only permit installation on a small subset of Google TV devices. The APK won't work on other systems (it used to, but now it doesn't, and it only ever worked on Gingerbread devices.)

If you have lots of bandwidth and don't need more than 480p then the Wii is still the hero if what you want is Netflix and Amazon. Otherwi

get a raspberry pi and set up xbmc on it. i did. it has 5.1 out, hdmi cec (turns on tv + amp, sets to right inputs automatically), runs linux, can handle 1080p video. plus it's just so cute. also unlike an old xbox it is tiny, silent, and runs off a phone charger.

XBMC is too heavy for Raspberry Pi. It's chunky on it. As well, it doesn't support Netflix. The Amazon plugin is shaky. OpenELEC is busy confusing itself by doing stuff like taking bluetooth out and putting it back in. If you are actually going to go buy something to do this job, a Raspberry Pi is absolutely the wrong thing to spend your money on. It's not the worst media player, but it really doesn't provide the kind of experience it probably should. The old Xbox may not be tiny or silent, or run off a "ph

"Multimedia" may work fine under Linux, but the no-longer-maintained Adobe Flash proprietary plugin definitely sucks. It is, IMO, one of the reasons why Flash as a content delivery platform needs to die. It was developed by a company who put a developer who was vocally and publicly anti-Linux in charge of their Linux plugin. Hooray.

Funny that. I never seem to have problems with multimedia, be it streaming (which I usually un-stream first so I can play it on anything attached to the server) or file-based media. Using Linux. Maybe Linux does not suck at multimedia after all... which might explain the multitude of multimedia-related hardware on the market running Linux.

What makes the Raspberry Pi a good choice for this type of application is its lower power consumption, lower price, lower maintenance, lower heat output, lower noise, lowe

> Pony up for a copy of windows home edition, and install XBMC on that

Except it will have the exact same problems with Flash. The truth of the matter is that hardware acceleration is a new thing with Adobe. It's not something you can depend on in Flash because it's a new feature that webmasters have to specifically enable.

Meanwhile, even Linux has supported full GPU acceleration for years. That copy of XBMC that you didn't really try out had that available.

"Meanwhile, even Linux has supported full GPU acceleration for years. That copy of XBMC that you didn't really try out had that available."

That's a lie. GPU acceleration totally depends on your driver. e.g. I ran a VIA system (more for NAS than for desktop use) that has a h264 decoder in the GPU, but the driver only does basic 2D display and you have to compile from SVN for that. I would need to use Windows 7 or 8 to get GPU acceleration (including basic OpenGL)If you run AMD open source driver : the featur

I'm using tvheadend for a backend (on a beefy desktop PC with TV cards, SSD and TBs of storage) and an Acer Revo 3710 (a "little atom based box") with XBMC on Ubuntu 12.04. No problems with hardware acceleration (uses Nvidia ION 2) once I installed the proprietary nvidia-current driver or sending 5.1 audio to my 5.1 setup (obviously use the Sound section in Ubuntu's system settings to test the audio before doing the same in XBMC's audio settings). It should be noted that everything is connected HDMI (Revo -